Patterns and Determinants of Metropolitan House Prices, 1977-91

Real metropolitan house prices have been quite volatile during the 1977-91 period, with half of our 30 areas having annual increases of above 15 percent in a single year and a third having decreases greater than 7.5 percent. Drawing on Capozza and Helsley's models of real land prices, we express real house price changes as a function of the rate of change in employment, real income growth, real construction cost inflation, and changes in real after-tax interest rates. Our explanatory power varies widely by region. We do quite well for the half of our cities in the more stable Upper Midwest and Southeast, less well for the coastal cities, and dismally for the two Texas cities.